What I remember about number 23 is David Beckham new number when he transferred to Real Madrid from Manchester United.

Well, that’s not important.

Today is my birthday. I was born 23 years ago. It’s been quite a journey. I have been living on Bandung, Jakarta, Balikpapan, then Bandung again. I met a lot of friends. I’ve experienced and achieved many things in life.

I really thankful for what this live has given to me. Despite its downs, life offers much more beautiful things. My experience in finding the true meaning of life has given me a new perspective to view problems. Sure, there are people who get harder problems yet they survive. And there are people who get easier problems yet they are whinning all the time. Our actions define us, not the problems.

Because, we are what we are. Not we are what our problems are.

Happy birthday, myself. I hope your years to come will be as great as your dreams!

Writing is good. It helps us train our process of thinking to be more systematic. It will make us a better communicator verbally. And for people who English is not their mother language like me, it helps enriching our vocabulary. So why not I give myself a challenge to write about one article per day?

Thematic Writing

It will be great to have a theme each day. At least it will be easier to find something to write. I am a kind of person that find it really hard to find the perfect topic. But actually perfection is not important. What is more important is the process of writing itself, right?

Monday

It’s good to start the week with some plans. So I will write my plans or future thoughts on Monday.

Tuesday

For the second day, I will write technology-related post. Or some science.

Wednesday

Let’s open our eyes to see the world around us. News, fun facts, reviews, or anything will be great.

Thursday

I am usually very busy on Thursday. So, how about a day off?

Friday

Spiritual things will be great to end the working week. I will be writing about history, life, religion, and great people from the past who inspire me a lot.

Mine is Islam. The religion taught by Muhammad saww. from around 1400 years ago. Thousands of years is not a short time. The information can be distorted. We can take an example in recent days. If you pick one trending topics in the world, mostly there are many versions of stories from the mass media.

Some complement each other. Some contradict the other.

But there is only one truth. Always one.

The same thing is happening to Islam (and other religions I think). It is been 1400 years since Prophet Muhammad left this world. Today, there are at least six large groups of sects in this religion: four large groups of Sunni (Hanafi, Syafi’i, Maliki, Hambali), Shia, and Wahhabi.

The variance is understandable. It has been more than one thousand years since the Prophet left us. For those of you who are wondering: yes, the purity of Alquran is guaranteed[1].

But, the guarantee only covers the original arabic text. Since the translations were made by humans – the source of wrongs – mistranslations can happen everywhere. If the translation is not guaranteed by God, how about the hidden meanings behind the verse (takwil)? How about the sunnah? How about the other parts of the teaching?

In a nutshell:

How can we make sure that our Islam is the same Islam that Prophet Muhammad saww. taught at 1400 years ago?

My journey for the last several years brings me the answer. I will share the story but not the conclusion. Because, it is your duty as a Muslim to find the truth.